We are traveling on a France/Germany Rail pass and while most of the trains in Germany do not require reservations some schedules say reservations are recommended for peace of mind of making sure a first class seat is available. There are four of us traaveling together. My question is should we go ahead and get reservations? We are traveling the month of September. Ron
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Ronald, you might want to make some advance reservations. France limits their seats on the TGVs to Eurail passholders. Plus, they charge a supplemental fee of 9Euro for each TGV train you will be on. Here's a picture of what I see on the Eurail website that relates to my first sentence above. http://gyazo.com/ea22699867d8ff32cd7984b3c090831d
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
In Germany, depending on the length of the trip, I would make reservation. They are only 4€/seat and I think that covers two trains in a sequence. Also, if the four are two parents and two kids (under 15) a family reservation is only 8€. In 12 years, I have only found one express train to be SRO, and that was on a national holiday, but just to be safe, particularly for trips over about an hour, I would reserve.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
The advantage of buying a reservation is that you don't have to fumble around looking for an empty seat, and if traveling in a group, it will guarantee that you can all sit to together. Otherwise, it isn't necessary, you'll find a seat somewhere. But this isn't a problemm in first class, where there are usually plenty of vacancies.